Microsoft Corp. won a court’s okay to move forward with its $69 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard

Slack has been hit by unusual errors that have seen messages disappear and duplicate. Problems have been reported by a “small percentage” of users, according to the office chat app. Those affected said they were seeing messages duplicate or not send, especially in groups. The company acknowledged the problem and said that it was investigating. “We’re receiving reports that a small percentage of users are experiencing issues with loading and sending messages,” it said in a post to its status page. “We’re actively looking into this, and we’ll report back as more information becomes available.” Tracking website Down Detector confirmed the issues, with a relatively small number of reports from users that the app was not working as expected. It was unclear why the problems were only affecting some users, and what marked out those who were hit by it. It was also unclear whether there was any easy way for those affected to make the app work as normal again. The outage comes just a few days after another major outage at the office chat app. This time around, the problems came at the end of the working day in the UK, and before lunchtime in the US. Read More Slack is down Photoshop unveils ‘extraordinary’ AI that transforms your pictures with a text prompt ChatGPT creator issues stark warning on AI

Dropbox Inc., a provider of online data storage, is ending its unlimited option, saying a small handful of

Hackers who claim to be affiliated with Russia’s Wagner group say they’ve breached a Russian

By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) -Wildfires spread in the western Canadian province of British Columbia on Friday, while in the

The mystery behind the brightest explosion ever seen has finally been solved. In October last year, the Earth was hit by a blast that came to be known as the Brightest of All Time. It was recorded by telescopes across the world, and scientists have been scrambling to explain it ever since. Now researchers believe they may understand why that gamma ray burst was quite so intense. It was pointed directly at Earth and pulled along a large amount of stellar material. That’s according to a new paper published in the journal Science Advances. While scientists have suggested before that the brightness of the blast was the result of its angle, but some mystery remained: the edges of the jet could not be seen. “The slow fade of the afterglow is not characteristic of a narrow jet of gas, and knowing this made us suspect there was an additional reason for the intensity of the explosion, and our mathematical models have borne this out,” said Hendrik Van Earthen from the University of Bath. “Our work clearly shows that the GRB had a unique structure, with observations gradually revealing a narrow jet embedded within a wider gas outflow where an isolated jet would normally be expected.” The work is described in a new paper, ‘A structured jet explains the extreme GRB 221009’, published in the journal Science Advances. Read More Scientists demonstrate wireless power transmission from space for first time Whistleblower alleges UFO crashes – and a cover-up to keep them secret Watch: Strawberry moon lights up skies over UK

Nasa has named its new head of research into unexplained phenomena spotted in the sky – after initially saying that it would not. The space agency said that its new head of research into Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAPs, would be kept secret in an attempt to keep them from being abused. Many of the publicly identified members its research panel have been subject to threats and harassment, the space agency has said. Previously, members of the panel said that abuse had kept them from properly examining the phenomena. The announcement of a new head of research came soon during the discussion of the panel’s first report into UFOs. That report said that it needed more scientific research to make firm conclusions – and less stigma and abuse of those doing it. During a panel discussion of that report, Nasa associate administrator Nicola Fox said that the space agency had appointed a new official to oversee the research and work with other federal agencies. But she told reporters that “we will not give his name out” for fear of reprisals. Later on Thursday, however, Nasa released a new blog post in which it identified the new director as Mark McInerney. “McInerney previously served as NASA’s liaison to the Department of Defense covering limited UAP activities for the agency,” it wrote. “In the director role, he will centralize communications, resources, and data analytical capabilities to establish a robust database for the evaluation of future UAP. “He also will leverage NASA’s expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and space-based observation tools to support and enhance the broader government initiative on UAP.” The report did not give any indication of why the space agency had changed its mind on naming the new appointment. It only noted that it had made the decision to update it to “include details about the UAP research director”. In the 33-page report published earlier on Thursday, an independent team commissioned by NASA cautioned that the negative perception surrounding UFOs poses an obstacle to collecting data. But officials said NASA‘s involvement should help reduce the stigma around what it calls UAPs, or unidentified anomalous phenomena.“We want to shift the conversation about UAPs from sensationalism to science,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. He promised an open and transparent approach. Officials stressed the panel found no evidence that UAPs had extraterrestrial origin. But Nelson acknowledged with billions of stars in billions of galaxies out there, another Earth could exist. “If you ask me, do I believe there’s life in a universe that is so vast that it’s hard for me to comprehend how big it is, my personal answer is yes,” Nelson said at a news conference. His own scientists put the likelihood of life on another Earth-like planet at “at least a trillion.” When pressed by reporters on whether the U.S. or other governments are hiding aliens or otherworldly spaceships, Nelson said: “Show me the evidence.” NASA has said it doesn’t actively search for unexplained sightings. But it operates a fleet of Earth-circling spacecraft that can help determine, for example, whether weather is behind a strange event. The 16-member panel noted that artificial intelligence and machine learning are essential for identifying rare occurrences, including UFOs. No top-secret files were accessed by the panel’s scientists, aviation and artificial intelligence experts, and retired NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, the first American to spend nearly a year in space. Instead, the group relied on unclassified data in an attempt to better understand unexplained sightings in the sky. Officials said there are so few high-quality observations that no scientific conclusions can be drawn. Most events can be attributed to planes, drones, balloons or weather conditions, said panel chairman David Spergel, president of the Simons Foundation, a scientific research group. The government refers to unexplained sightings as UAPs versus UFOs. NASA defines them as observations in the sky or elsewhere that cannot be readily identified or scientifically explained. The study was launched a year ago and cost under $100,000. Additional reporting by agencies Read More We cannot yet explain mysterious sightings in the sky, Nasa panel says Nasa boss says he believes in aliens during UFO hearings Watch as Nasa announces findings of long-awaited UFO study Nasa’s UFO study team reveals first ever report: as it happened Scientists might have seen a ‘life’ molecule on another planet SpaceX crew streak across sky before splashing down off Florida coast

By Lisa Richwine and Dawn Chmielewski LOS ANGELES Netflix raised subscription prices for some of its streaming plans

Amazon today updated its Echo lineup, and previewed a conversational version of Alexa that offers

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TL;DR: As of Sept. 2, get the Notti Smart Light for only $24.99 (reg. $39.99)

The UK said the number of “green jobs” associated with the push toward net zero fossil fuel emissions